Emergency submarine communication



May 16, 1933. R A mug 1,909,437

EMERGENCY SUBMARINE COMMUNICATION Filed May 25, 1952 I-IIIIHI "I/[IIIIII/l/l/IIAE Q E VII/III 24 Penzbm/ze CZ Patented May 16, 1933 STATES PEMBROKE A. VAILE, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIG-NOR OF ONE-HALF TO LEWIS T. GREIST, OF LAKE FOREST, ILLINOIS EMERGENCY SUBMARINE COMMUNICATION Application filed. May 25,

The present invention relates to the establishment of physical communication between the interior of scaled chambers and the exterior thereof without impairment of the sealed character of the interior against eX- terior surroundings.

The invention, while adaptable to many other fields of usefulness, such as bulkheads, casks and other barriers against a fluid body is particularly suited for and will be set forth herein as applied to the establishment of communication to and from tenanted submerged vessels such as submarines.

Many cases have arisen in which a submarine, by reason of some mishap, is unable to rise from the bottom. Often days or weeks elapse before the location of the vessel on the bottom is ascertained so as to enable salvage operations to begin; again, even when located before the crew have perished from lack of air or sustenance, it has been impossible or at least exceedingly difficult for divers to establish physical communication with the interior in order to supply air, food or drink, but succor must await the raising of the vessel, which is not infrequently too late.

The salient objects of this invention are the provision of means whereby a crew of a sunken submarine can indicate their exact location to searchers upon or about the surface; and whereby divers coming alongside can establish communication between the salvage vessel upon the surface and the interior of the submarine for the delivery to the entrapped crew of fresh air, liquid food and similar necessities for the maintenance of life while salvage operations are being conducted.

For a better understanding of the invention' and its practice, a preferred embodiment of the same is set forth in the following description and in the accompanying drawing.

In the drawing,

Fig. 1 represents a fragmentary trans- 1932. Serial No, 613,368.

Fig. 4 is a section showing th e tube within the port and the plug partially projected therefrom;

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of one of the plugs Fig. 6 is aperspective View of the tube end;

Fig. 7 is a fragmentary longitudinal sec-' tion of the right hand portionof Fig. 6 illustrating one form of tube valve.

Having reference to the drawing, the wall of a submarine or other sealed chamber is indicated at 11 having permanently fixed therein a bushing 12 which is 'interiorly threaded to provide a port extending through the wall. A pair of closure plugs, identical in construction, are shown as seated in the port from opposite sides, being identical, the description of one will sufiice for both.

Each plug comprises an imperforate head 13 and a shell body, of which the outer 8X- tremity 14 and the inner extremity 15 are circumferentially continuous. The portions 14 and 15 are connected by an intermediate portion 16 laterally apertured as indicated at 17. The portions 14, 15 and 16 are exteriorly threaded for cooperation with the threaded interior of the port bushing 12.

The outer closed end 13 of the plug is p-ro-' vided with a diametric slot 18 or otherwise adapted for engagement by a suitable tool for rotating the plug to efiect its entrance to or removal from that side of the wall.

It will be understood that the terms outer or outward and inner or inward have no reference to the inside or outside of the vessel but rather to the plug in relation to the port, e. g. the plug is closed at its outer end and open at its inner end.

The inner open end of the plug is provided at diametric points with notches or recesses 19 for the reception of tongues :20 projecting longitudinally from the end of a tubular member 21 forming the terminal portion of a hose 22 whereby the plus may be engaged at its inner end by a right .line movement of the tube into the port, bringing the tongues 20 into the slots 19, after which the plug may be rotated in either direction, as illustrated in Fig. a.

It will be noted that the terminal portion 21 of the tube is unthreaded and has an outer diameter sufficiently less than the inner threaded diameter of the port that it may be entered into the port freely in an axial direc tion to engage the tongues 20 with the notches 19; also that the longitudinal extent of the tube portion 21 corresponds to the distance from the bottom of the slots 19 to the open end of the port whereby the tongues may be seated in the notches without rotary movement. Adjacent the unthreaded tube portion 21 the tube is threaded, as shown at 23, over a longitudinal extent corresponding to the extent of the outer threaded portion of the plug plus the longitudinal extent of the apertures 17; also that the threaded tube portion 23 terminates in an integral collar 2e presenting a shoulder 25, whereby the tube member cannot be screwed into the port a sufiicient distance to discharge the plug from the opposite side of the port but only to the extent illustrated in Fig. 4 in which the threaded portion 15 remains in threaded engagement with the port.

Under normal conditions the port, of which there may be any desired number, is closed against the leakage of water to the vessel or of air therefrom by means of a pair of these plugs screwed into the bushing from opposite sides, constituting in eii'ect a solid continuous Wall.

If it is assumed that a submarine, for instance, has met with disaster and is resting upon the bottom unable to rise,.and it be considered that the interior of the vessel is at the right in 1 and the exterior at the left, the plug A will be removed from the port by means of any suitable tool. The condition then present is indicated in Fig. 2, the entrance of water beingprecluded by the remaining plug B. The tube. shown in Fig. 3, is then inserted from the interior of the vessel into the port with its tongues 20 in interlocking engagement within the slots 19 and rotated clockwise. The threads at 23, in engagement with the threaded port, progress the tube into the port concurrently with the progression of the plug B towards discharge to the outside, until the shoulder at 25 abuts against the interior wall of the vessel, at which time the plug B will have been projected beyond the exterior wall, as shown in Fig. 4:, short of discharge, being still firmly held in place by the threaded engagement of the portion 14: with the threaded bushing, whereby communication is established from within to the exterior of the vessel.

It will be understood that the tube will be provided at a suitable distance from its end with any appropriate form of valve or other closure, such as aball check valve 26 with retaining lugs 27, by which, as the a pertured portion of the cage-like plug is exposed, the water is prevented from flowing into the vessel through the tube.

Smoke-producing chemicals of any well known sort may be discharged from the tube through the port and apertured plug by detonation of a smoke bomb within the tube adjacent its end, and the smoke so produced will. escape through the port and apertured plug, rising to the surface in the form of a stream or succession of bubbles which breaking at the surface will be observable by searching vessels or airplanes, accurately locating the position of the sunken vessel.

Even in the absence of an accident the submarine may, if desired, utilize a continuous discharge of smoke bubbles to indicate to those above the surface the course along which it is proceeding beneath the surface.

The rotation of the tube in a counter clockwise direction will not only serve to retract it from the port but such rotary motion will be transmitted. by means of the tongue and slot engagement to the plug itself, retracting the plug B into the port until its head 13 abuts the exterior wall, at which time the threaded portion of the tube will have withdrawn from threaded engagen'ient with the port and the tongues 20 may be disconnected from the notches 19 by a longitudinal movement; whereupon the plug A may again be screwed into position to reestablish the sealing of the port both from the interior and the exterior.

The generation of smoke or other substance visible above the surface and the mechanism by which the same nut be generated or expelled through the port forms no part of the present invention. It will be understood that instead of generation of smoky vapor within the tube or an attachment thereto. smoke bombs could be mechanically expelled through the tube and the ape -ures of the plug which, floating to the surface, would detonate at the surface generating the smoke there instead of within the tube, or flares could be released which would burn up the surface. All such matters would be w in the skill of mechanics and workers in the pyrotechnic art.

The locale of the sunken submarine being established either in the manner hereinabove set forth or in any other way, the invention could be utilized for the succor of the entrapped crew in the manner following:

A salvage vessel anchored on the surface adjacent the submarine would send down divers carrying with them a flexible hose connected at the upper end with appropriate means for supplying the hose with air or liquid nourishment. The lower end. of the hose would be equipped with a tubular men1- ber such as that illustrated and previously described. 7 Reaching the submarine and locating one of the many emergency equipped ports, the diver would remove the plug at the exterior of the port. The plug A remaining in position on the interior would continue to seal the port, The diver would then insert the tube portion 21, interlock the tongues 20 with the notches 19 of the interior plug, screw the tubular end of the hose into the port to an extent limited by the collar 24, projecting the plug A into the submarine interior to an extent sufficient to clear the apertures 17 from the bushing; whereupon air could be pumped into the submarine from the salvage vessel. A similar hose could be entered into another port in the same manner for the supply of liquid nourishment, if desired.

The procedure of establishing communica tion from above the surface to the interior is precisely the same as the establishing of communication from the interior to a point above the surface as previously described; the only difilerence being that in the one case the oper ation proceeds from the exterior and in the other case from the interior.

The hose device could be employed as a speaking tube by which verbal communication could be established between the salvage party and the trapped crew, as will be obvious, and other purposes might be served, without the necessity of enumerating all of the functions for the performance of which the hose would be adapted.

The device'guards against the possibility of the removal of the plug opposite the inserted tube, whereby upon the removal of the tube the port would be left unsealed, in that the plug cannot be rotated independently of the hose with which it is interlocked by the tongues 20 and notches 19; moreover the extent to which the tube can be screwed into the port being limited by the shoulder it is impossible to project the plug from the port sufliciently to dislodge the same; again, the tube cannot be removed from the port until the opposite plug is withdrawn into sealing relation to the port. Thus is attained a substantially fool-proof construction.

It will be appreciated that by the simple reliable device herein set forth communication may be established in either direction between the exterior and the interior of a sealed chamber while maintaining the one sealed against the other; also that there is no possibility of the seal being carelessly broken, due to the fact that only the adjacent plug may be removed except by means of the tubular device which acts to seal that end from which one plug has been removed before the other plug is unseated from the port. The device is simple, not requiring any degree of skill for its successful operation. It adds no weight to the vessel, presents no obstruction and encroaches not in the slightest degree upon the limited space available within the submarine. In fact, the head 13 of the plugcould be countersunk in the bushing so as to leave a perfectly smooth surface. Many lives could have been saved by this invention, which have been lost due to the difficulty of quickly locating sunken submarines and in 1. In a device of the character set forth,-

a sealed container having a wall provided 1 with a port, an interiorly threaded bushing permanently fixed therein, a plug member closed at its outer end and open at its inner end and laterally apertured intermediate its ends, said plug threaded into the port from one side and provided at its exposed closed end with means for rotating the same, in combination with a tubular key member exteriorly threaded adjacent its end for threaded entry to the opposite side of the port, the tube between its end and threaded portion being readily insertable:longitudinally into the bushing, the plug and tube having terminal interengaging portions cooperating to effeet the turning of the plug by the tube for seating and unseating the same, the threaded portions of the plug and tube being so proportioned relative to the axial dimension of the port as to project the apertured portion of the plug from the port while preventing dislodgment of the plug from its threaded engagement.

2. In a device of the character set forth, a sealed container having a wall provided with an interiorly threaded port, a plug member closed at its outer end and open at its inner v end and laterally apertured intermediate its ends, said plug threaded into the port from one side, in combination with a tubular key member formed adjacent its end for threaded entry to the opposite side of the port, the inner end of the plug and the tube having terminal interengaging port-ions cooperating to effect the turning of the plug, the tube for a distance from its end being of suliiciently less diameter than the port to permit the entrance of the same into the port and into coupling engagement with the plug, the

threaded portion of the tube thence extending for a distance less than the length of the plug and then provided with a collar to limit the distance to which the tube can be threaded into the port, whereby to insure the retention of the plug short of discharge from the port but with its apertured portion exposed beyond the port.

3. In a device of the character set forth, a sealed container having a wall provided with an interiorly threaded port, a pair of plug members each closed at its outer end and open at its inner end and laterally apertured intermediate its ends, said plugs threaded into the port from opposite sides, each plug provided at its exposed outer closed end with means for rotating the same, in combination with a tubular key member exteriorly threaded adjacent its end for threaded entry to the op posite side or" the port, the tube between its end and threaded portion being readily insertable longitudinally into the bushing, the plug and tube having terminal interengaging portions cooperating to efiect the turning of the plug by the tube for seating and unseating the same, the threaded portions of the plug and tube being so proportioned relative to the axial dimension of the port as to proect the apertured portion of the plug from the port while preventing dislodgment of the plug from its threaded engagement.

l. In a device of the character set forth, a sealed container having a wall provided with an interiorly threaded port, a pair of plug members each closed at its outer end and open at its inner end and laterally apertured intermediate its ends, said plugs threaded into the port from opposite sides, each plug provided its exposed outer closed end with means for rotating the same, in combination with a tubular key member exteriorly threaded adjacent its end for threaded entry to the opposite side of the port, the inner sealed open end of each plug and the tube having terminal interengaging portions cooperating to.

eitect the turning of the plug by the tube tor seating and unseating the same, the tube for a distance from its end being of sufiicient ly less diameter than the port to permit the entrance of the same into the port when the plug is removed from that side of the wall and into coupling engagement with the open end of the other plug, the threaded portion of the tube thence extending for a distance I less than the length of the plug and then provided with a collar to limit the distance to which the plug can be threaded into the port, whereby to insure the retention of the plug short of discharge from the port but with its apertured portion exposed beyond the port.

5. In a device for establishing communication in either direction between the inte rior of a vessel and the exterior thereof, the wall of the vessel provided with an interion ly threaded port, two companion plug members threaded into the port from opposite sides, each of the plug members closed at its outer end and open at its inner end and laterally apertured intermediate its ends, each of said plugs provided at its open and closed ends with means for rotating the same, in combination with a tubular key member formed adjacent its end for threaded entry to the open side of the port when one 019 the plugs is removed and having'terminal means for interengaging with the rotating means on the open end of the remaining plug whereby to seat and unseat the latter, the threaded portions of the plug and tube being so proportioned relative to the axial dimension of the port as to project the apertured portion of the plug from the port while preventing dislodgment of the plug from its threaded engagement and upon reverse movement to again retract the plug to its seated position.

6. The method of establishing communi cation in either direction between a submerged vessel and the surface which consists in providing in the wall of the vessel a threaded port having companion innerand outer port-closure elements, removing either 

